Step Aside, Pops by Kate Beaton

December 16, 2015/

I love Beaton. Not only is she a fellow Nova Scotian, but how many people do you know that you can make that Wuthering Heights jokes to?

Not many, I tell you!

If you’re a literary nerd and you’re right into history, you’ll find this book hilarious. Beaton is a genius. She satirizes goddamn Kokoro by Soseki. Who even knows about Japanese political novelist Soseki? Oh, wait. She does. Way to fucking go Kate Beaton. High fives all around.

Reading her makes you feel like you have a super smart best friend who understands all your uncool pop-culture references. History isn’t even really popular culture, it’s a sub-pop culture. Beaton is bringing it though. Pretty soon strangers will think it’s cool you made a feminist Napoleon joke while waiting for the bus.

My favorite characters are her nose-to-the-grindstone interpretation of journalist Lois Lane who’s just trying to get shit done despite her nagging suitor Clark Kent; and Beaton’s jaded Wonder Woman who just can’t be bothered to give a fuck.

Also: Ida B Wells! Over overlooked in history classes, she is a total badass and Kate does a great job of capturing her feisty character.

Source: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=356

There’s also her straw feminists comic which has made its way around the internet multiple times.

Source: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=382

Oddly enough, I saw a poster at my university advertising a feminist meeting using this straw feminists comic. I stared at it for a long time, but I really couldn’t figure out whether they meant it ironically or not. The title of the meeting was something akin to, ‘Come Learn How To Worship Women’ and there was an icon of a full-bellied goddess next to it (overall, I left with the feeling that they didn’t really get it).

The straw feminists comic also reminds me of Part I of T. S. Eliot’s 1925 poem, The Hollow Men:

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I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats’ feet over broken glass In our dry cellar

Hi, I’m Mel, blogger and tea sommelier at Mel Had Tea. I love to explore, learn, and meet new people. Nothing inspires me more than reading, traveling the world, talking to strangers, and drinking tea.